Memoirs of a Geisha is about a little girl from a small fishing village on the ocean in Japan. Her mother becomes ill and her father sells her and her sister to an okiya in Kyoto. There, little Chiyo is tormented by the geisha house's only geisha, Hatsamomo. Chiyo works as a maid as she watches Hatsamomo and the other geisha entertain. Life is looking bleak until a chance encounter with a stranger on a bridge. This is the moment that changes her life forever. Soon, Chiyo becomes Sayuri, the most popular geisha in Gion. Her motivation is the hope that one day she will meet the stranger on the bridge once more.